Halloween is upon us already and All Saints Day follows in its wake, if you’ll pardon the deathly pun, writes European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) Executive Director Denis Horgan.

Most of those working in the institutions in Brussels will be taking the ‘bridge’ due to today’s (Thursday 1 November) holiday and, speaking of things that connect, EAPM’s 2nd annual Congress at the end of November will do its own connecting by bringing stakeholders in personalised medicine together in a one-stop-shop.

It’s sure to be a ‘Thriller’…

The event comes under the title ‘Forward as One: Integrating Innovation into Europe’s Healthcare Systems’, and will provide the ideal space to allow for a meeting of minds and expertise plus a vital opportunity for the formulation of real action plans.

The Congress will take place in Milan from 26-28 November, with the Alliance working in partnership with the Regional Council of Lombardy for the event.

Numbers are already in the high hundreds and are rising by the day, while the calibre of speakers is of the utmost quality.

If you haven’t registered yet, you can do so hereand, given the time of year, the more saintly among you will hit that registration button…

Last year’s inaugural Congress in Belfast is was a great success and the ultimate ghoul, sorry, goal of the Milan edition is to match and even outdo the 2017 event in the Northern Ireland capital.

At the Milan Congress, you can expect to see some 1000 Life Sciences thought leaders and, as it did last year, the event will bring together key audiences who contribute to the vast programme content, themed tracks, and vital knowledge exchange.

This key event will pull together leading experts in the arena of personalised medicine drawn from patient groups, payers, health-care professionals plus industry, science, academic and research representatives.

There are obviously a great deal of issues affecting health care in general and personalised medicine in particular going forward, not least the European Parliament elections due in May next year and the current focus on the future of HTA.

These (and many other issues) will all come under the microscope at Congress.

Experience has taught us that it is always important to hold a meeting of minds in the sphere of health care, and the event will see a heavy emphasis placed on developments emerging from prior congresses in the autumn, the need to reach out to MEPs old and potentially new, and that ongoing assessment debate.

The timing of the event is key because changes are afoot in Parliament. A total of 751 MEPs currently represent some 500 million people from 28 Member States. However, in February of this year, Parliament voted to decrease the number of MEPs to 705, a change which will kick in after the UK withdraws from the EU on the current schedule.

It is vital for the health of Europe that stakeholders engage sitting MEPs, those about to be elected to the hemicycles and an incoming new Commission. This will be a key goal of the conference.

The Milan event will also allow stakeholders to air their views prior to delivering key aspects to decision makers at European, national and regional levels. This will effectively allow for a bridge to representatives in various policy areas. Consensus is king.

The over-arching goal of Congress is to identify and precisely define the critical barriers that limit personalised medicine uptake, while also developing realistic, workable solutions that will enhance patient access to targeted treatment across Europe.

Innovation and the incentives for it are vital to health and wealth in the current EU-28 (and will be even more important after the UK leaves). It also encourages investment from outside of the EU, clearly good for business and jobs.

It is undeniable that innovation needs to soar to new heights, and be implemented and integrated, for the benefit of EU citizens. We are sure that the Milan Congress will move Europe forward in this regard.

So, as we march on into the winter months, Halloween is a keen reminder that we cannot allow a deathly silence to descend on the need for the best healthcare for Europe’s patients.

The spectre of the challenges of an ageing population is looming ever largely, so now is the time to turn misty ideas into solid reality, because the personalised medicine revolution cannot simply be fancy dress.